Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 577 posts

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#41

Post by boomboomsubban »

jsutton wrote: post #29
boomboomsubban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they are a news organization. Covering the election is what a news organization should do, and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. >They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network This is untrue. There is nothing suggesting that Wikileaks has knowingly coordinated with Russia. And that TV…

Covering news is much different than exposing the private communications of a political party.

No, it is not. It may have been preffered if some of the less relevant emails were not shared, it's also unclear who should make the call of what is "relevant" and either way their release was news.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#42

Post by Karunamon »

elliekelly wrote: post #28
gbumakefan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was illegal about releasing campaign emails that were given to them?

Some of the emails were altered by Russia for the purpose of spreading misinformation. Russia used Wikileaks to lend credibility to the conspiracy theories they were sowing in the run-up to the election. NY Time has a great 3-part video series about Russia's history of spreading fake news. Each video is about 15 minutes but it's well worth the watch.

This is the first I’ve heard about the released emails not being completely authentic. Do you have any more reading on this matter?

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#43

Post by ixtli »

minikites wrote: post #10

I would be genuinely surprised if the current administration decided to prosecute one of their most useful Russian agents.

Again sarcasm as a way to convey a legitimate point is downvoted on HN so I'll translate: I would be surprised if he was prosecuted harshly given his important role in the election of the current president of the US.

(Edit: to be clear, I personally dislike seeing all these jokes about russian agents re: the 2016 election. There was clearly meddling but its beginning to bother me that a vocal strain of vocal American liberals seem to believe that the main reason why trump is president is because someone broke some rules. People like Assange aren't pawns of some dark and evil power: they are themselves bad actors and should be treated as such.)

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#45

Post by 1001101 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #23
hadrien01 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News organizations wouldn't drop all the emails at once. Previous enormous leaks have been handled by ICIJ members with great care, going for years of investigations, careful verifications, and publishing only pertinent stories.

Why is that better than releasing all the emails at once? Why do they get to decide what's "pertinent"?

I wonder if how Julian releases the primary source material is in line with his scientific journalism [1] practices.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_journalism

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#46

Post by civilian »

eeks wrote: post #32
Apocryphon wrote: post #4

So much for WikiLeaks thinking there was a lesser evil back in 2016

Wikileaks believed at the time that Clinton was ready to send a drone to get rid of Assange. Between due process and a drone attack, I take due process any day.

How about drone strike via due process? :(

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#47

Post by xoa »

Without any opinion the merits of this case in particular, which seems like a total mess all around and I haven't been following, on the topic more generally I found "Demystifying International Extradition" [1] last year to be an interesting summary of the process. It introduced me to concepts that don't really tend to come up in local law. Amongst other pertinent aspects is that while the US generally wants to avoid binding its own hands it can do so if another nation demands it when it comes to the penalties it will seek. Lots of countries (I think including England?) will not extradite if the death penalty is on the table, but the US can apparently legally assure that it won't seek it (for capital crimes).

Lot of political considerations and such in high profile cases I guess when it comes to agreements between nation-states. Everyone can be prickly about their prerogatives and who gets justice and what it means for relations and public opinion and so on. Nothing guaranteed about it.

----

1: https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/publications/20...

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#48

Post by ixtli »

ixtli wrote: post #43
minikites wrote: post #10

I would be genuinely surprised if the current administration decided to prosecute one of their most useful Russian agents.

Again sarcasm as a way to convey a legitimate point is downvoted on HN so I'll translate: I would be surprised if he was prosecuted harshly given his important role in the election of the current president of the US. (Edit: to be clear, I personally dislike seeing all these jokes about russian agents re: the 2016 election. There was clearly meddling but its beginning to bother me that a vocal strain of vocal American…

I'd also like to point out that, while I really value this community I dislike this tendency. Not agreeing with such comments is fine, but this isn't a personal attack so I don't understand why this style of conversation is treated this way. Sarcasm and sly humor are actually good and should be encouraged so long as it is relevant and not meant to hurt non-public figures. Overall this behavior comes off to me as understanding what is being conveyed but using the style of delivery as an excuse not to engage.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#49

Post by boomboomsubban »

krapp wrote: post #37
boomboomsubban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they are a news organization. Covering the election is what a news organization should do, and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. >They have been to be a known tool for the Russian government, even going as far as creating a show for Julian Assange on the state-backed RT TV Network This is untrue. There is nothing suggesting that Wikileaks has knowingly coordinated with Russia. And that TV…

Wikileaks didn't cover the election. Wikileaks released private emails with the intent of damaging one specific candidate. >and it's hard to argue the Clinton emails weren't newsworthy. That the emails were released was newsworthy, but I would argue that nothing in the emails themselves was particularly newsworthy.

The emails were newsworthy, disliking what you consider their ulterior motive doesn't change that.
Post reply on HN